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Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Welcome, Sherri. Tell us how much of
yourself you write into your characters.

I’d like to say “nothing,” but I know that’s not entirely
true. Right now, I’m writing a tomboy character, which is exactly the opposite
of me. I’m a complete girly-girly with a chandelier hanging in my office to
prove it. But there’s no denying that parts of an author’s personality seep
through the pages. My characters are just regular people trying to do the right
thing, and falling in love along the way.

What is the quirkiest
thing you have ever done?

When my brother-in-law was director for the local opera
company, he asked me to help out during a show. All I had to do was wear a
costume, and move furniture during scene changes. Sounds easy, right? Except it
turned out to be a much bigger part. I had to act, and hit spots, and I even
participated in a staged fight. Since I don’t read music, and I don’t speak
Italian, I had to figure out my positioning based on where the other performers
were standing. Then I had to perform in front of an audience! An introvert’s
worst nightmare. Truth be told, I had a blast. I came back and did another
opera the next year. And I still don’t sing or speak Italian.

When did you first
discover that you were a writer?

I was in my mid 30’s and I still didn’t know what I wanted
to be when I grew up. I knew I loved to read, and decided I’d try my hand at
writing a book. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop! It became a compulsion.
I knew I was a writer, because every time I became discouraged and quit,
something drew me back in.

Tell us the range of
the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I am rather narrow-minded in the book reading category. I
read almost exclusively romance, although I do read across genres. I adored the
Zebra Regencies, and I still campaign to bring back the regency book club. I
like secular and Christian books. I have a soft spot for Julie Garwood. Of
course Cheryl St.John is a favorite!

How do you keep your
sanity in our run, run, run world?

I don’t. Instead, I embrace the insanity. As Michael Caine
once said, “There are only two things in life I can’t stand: Intolerance for
other cultures. And the Dutch.”

How do you choose
your characters’ names?

I subconsciously steal them from my critique partners. This
is a real problem. I’ll think of a great name, that’s perfect for a character,
and realize I heard it from a book or a critique I just read. When I was
working on Winning the Widow’s Heart, I named a character Elizabeth. My critique partner, Cheryl
St.John, was working on Marrying the
Preacher’s Daughter, and the character’s name was, Elisabeth. Sigh. I tried
to name the character Isabelle, but that didn’t work. Cheryl said don’t worry
about it. And I figured, “Who cares? It’s not like this book will ever get
published!”

What is the
accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Selling Winning the Widow’s Heart to Tina
James at Love Inspired Historical. Writing and selling a book was the most difficult
challenge I’ve ever faced.

If you were an
animal, which one would you be, and why?

I would be my dog. She’s fat and lazy, she gets to sleep on
the bed, and she gets a blueberry facial at the dog groomer once a month. I’ve
never gotten a blueberry facial!

What is your favorite
food?

Frosting out of a can. Definitely. Most people like
chocolate, but I prefer the decadent bouquet of a nice whipped vanilla. I like
to keep a can in the back of the fridge and eat it over a two-week period using
only my index finger. There’s something delightfully debauched in skulking
behind the refrigerator door with a finger full of frosting.

What is the problem
with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Discouragement. Was and still is. I don’t have a lot of
patience to fix a story. I’ll give it a couple of tries, and if it’s not
working, it’s not working. This served me well as pre-pubbed, but it’s a
struggle as a published writer.

Tell us about the
featured book.

When Texas Ranger Jack Elder stormed the isolated Kansas homestead, he
expected to find a band of outlaws. Instead, the only occupant is a heavily
pregnant woman-and she's just gone in to labor. A loner uneasy with emotion,
Jack helps deliver widow Elizabeth Cole's baby girl and can't get back on the
trail fast enough. The robber and murderer he's after killed one of Jack's own,
and he vows to catch the man. But when he returns to check on Elizabeth and her little one, he discovers
that she may hold the key to his unsettled past-and his hoped-for future.

Please give us the
first page of the book.

A shrill scream from inside the homestead split the frosty
air.

Jack Elder flattened his back against the cabin’s rough-hewn
logs, his Smith & Wesson drawn. Icy fear twisted in his gut. He couldn’t
think about the woman inside, couldn’t let himself imagine what had ripped that
tortured sound from her.

Head cocked to one side, he strained to hear voices over the
howling wind. How many men were inside? Was Bud Shaw one of them?

Dense clouds draped the afternoon in an unnatural twilight.
Fat, heavy snowflakes sheeted from the sky, pillowing in heaps on the frozen
ground. Jack nudged the deepening slush with his boot. No footsteps showed in
the fresh covering. No animal prints either.

The glass-pane windows had been covered with oil cloth to
keep out the cold air and curious eyes. He cautiously edged toward the rear of
the house, his shoulders hunched. A sharp gust of wind sucked the breath from
his lungs. He stretched one hand around the corner, relieved to feel the raised
surface of a door latch.

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Thanks for featuring Sherri Shackleford. i know if you have her on your blog, her novels will be great. i would like to be a dog as well, if i could be an animal. On our farm, dogs are accepted by mother cats much more readily than humans! Thanks for the opportunity to win this one, Lena.